Converting from my old Palm LifeDrive to the Blackberry Tour 9630. I'm trying to setup the HandBase software but running into problems.

(1) When I install the desktop software, the 'Application Installer' seems unable to find the USB port my 'berry is plugged into and showed no location when I click the drop box. But, when I cancel it, the installer program says that the program installed the device.

(2) When I try to sync the device from the desktop, It loaded a couple of databases I selected, but not all. I got an error message on the 'berry that was too small for my 40+ year old eyes to read, then got a message on my laptop that said there was an error. It asked if I wanted to see the sync log. When I clicked yes, it told me that my device was unable to create a sync log.

Is this a bug with the desktop or Blackberry software? Is there something I'm doing wrong? Never had any problems with my old Palm device, so I'm kinda confused over these problems...

I'm sorry to hear that you are having problems. To better assist you and try to figure out the problem can you answer a few questions?

1. What version of Windows are you using?

2. What version of the BlackBerry Desktop Manager do you have?

3. Did you have the BlackBerry Desktop Manager open when you were trying to install the software?

4. Had you previously installed a trial version of the software?

5. At any point did you launch the Application Loader through the BlackBerry Desktop to install the software to your device?

6. Can you confirm that you have the latest version 4.1.5 Build R2 by opening the HanDBase Desktop and going to the Help menu and choosing About. The version and build will be in the box under Installed Packages.

Regarding your questions. If you didn't previously install the software then it sounds like even though the Application Loader that we launch from the installer didn't show connected that the BlackBerry Desktop did still somehow install the software to your device. If you did previously install it then most likely this install just failed because it didn't show it was connected. If the version on your device, in the About screen there, is 4.1.5.01 then you have the latest version and don't need to worry about re-installing it to the device. If you don't have that version then I'd suggest launching the BlackBerry Desktop Manager and connecting your device. Then use the Application Loader available there to install the latest version. It will likely be listed in the Application Loader and you'll only have to Finish that process to install the new version.

Regarding the Sync. Have you tried syncing again and if so did you still get errors? As for the Sync Log, if you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7 then there is a limitation we've discovered, under certain conditions, with the BlackBerry Desktop, as far as communication between our conduit and that goes. It may be necessary to Run the Conduit as Administrator on Vista or Windows 7 for it to function properly. To do that you'd go to your Start Menu then All Programs--HanDBase 4--Synchronization--BlackBerry and right click your mouse on the Synchronize option. Then choose Run as Administrator from the popup menu. You might be prompted for a password. The program will then launch normally just with added permissions which will properly allow the sync to happen and for the Log to be created. We've done a lot of tweaking and testing of our software to try to avoid Permissions issues under Vista and Windows 7 but at this point we've determined there is some limitation with the BlackBerry Desktop that is requiring the conduit to be launched this way. When you have a chance please try launching it this way and see if you still get the same errors.

There are also some issues with the way the BlackBerry OS handles memory. Due to these it may be necessary to install your databases one at a time to the device, syncing after you install each one, especially if you have larger databases.

3. I have tried to install and sync with the Blackberry Desktop Manager on and off

4. No trial version used, just the purchased version. I had enough success with the Palm version that I knew I wanted the product

5. Yes, I did without any apparent errors.

6. Yes, I have that current build number.

Out of frustration, I tried the old uninstall/reinstall trick. Now, instead of getting that error message, the Synchronize function for the HandBase desktop just freezes. I'm not sure, but it may be from a specific database I downloaded from the website. When I sync'ed as an administrator, the program did not hang up,but I get the same "Error: was not able to get the User Name of the device to store a Sync Log." message, but the database I tried to load other databases. Any other ways I can load them in, perhaps directly onto the Blackberry from the website?

I have to reboot into Windows 7 and haven't had a chance to do that just yet. I will do that tomorrow and see if I can reproduce this problem. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Based on all my previous testing at least doing the Run as Administrator should have at least let you sync properly.

I'll let you know what I can figure out after I can test in Windows 7.

I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to this post. For some reason I'm not receiving notices of responses to Forum posts I had already responded to.

I was able to do further testing on this recently and there is something different about Windows 7 that is not allowing our Conduit to work at all there. We are looking into this further to see why it will work under Vista, with similar security, but not on Windows 7. Normally this would be an issue with Admin vs Standard user or with User Account Control (UAC). However I tested under all levels of UAC with no ability to sync under any, even when Running the Program as Admin, which works under Vista.

I have reported this to the developer and he has it in his queue to look into. Unfortunately I don't have any time frame for when this might be fixed.

If you like I can process a refund for you and revert you back to the previous product you had. Please let me know.